This is my first post here, so if I did something wrong, let me know. I've been looking for a photo retouching forum for awhile, so I'm looking forward to joining your group here.

I took this picture about a month ago, and for some reason, the flash didn't fire. So I shed some light on the picture, and changed the colors in the sky.

The background has been brightened up a little, and the concrete and the girl have been brightened up even more than the background to make her the center of attention in the photo.

Can't really think of much else to do to the photograph. Any suggestions?

Don't you think it's good enough already?. ;]

WayDen, welcome to Retouch Pro! You have done a nice job of improving the underexposed parts. The only thing I would do is darken or replace the sky as much of it is fully blown out.
Regards, Murray

I thought it still a little too dark (the figure in the forground especially) I have a few screenshots here of what I did and I'll post step by step details in just a few minutes (gotta duck up the street).

and these also...

I'd agree with both the previous commenters -- replace the sky and lighten the subject even more. That's what I did.

Wow! Didn't expect so many responses so quickly!

Really love what you guys did to bring out the colors more, it looks better than the version I posted. I was worried about it looking "too photoshopped", and that's why I stopped improving it where I did.

But you guys just took it a couple of steps farther, and it looks fantastic. What exactly did you do to bring out the colors like that, Lonk & Littlecoo? Did you just play with the color balance or was it more than that?

Lonk, yours epecially looks great. Love to know what you did to create that version.

Again, thanks for the help and critiques!

Thx WayDen, yes a colour balance adjustment on the girl (hence the layer mask) and a warming(85) photo filter on the whole image to correct colour cast. I lightened up the image some more too with Shadows/Highlights adjustment and did some noise reduction (per each channel) to smooth out the shadows. I didn't touch the sky, but you may want to mask that on an extra layer so you can adjust it separately if you wish.

I don't think I could do much to improve the photo compared to earlier posting … I was just practicing. Followed the same basic steps... Added blue to the sky. Boosted colors a bit in Lab color. Tried to sharpen, this in combination with jpeg artifacts produced a few color patches... Working with higher resolution photo would be easier.
Pavel

Hi WayDen. I use PhotoImpact, so my techniques may be of very limited use to you. I'm guessing you use PhotoShop like the majority here at RP.

Most of what I did is similar (result wise) to what Littlecoo has done. Basically, I use dynamic range extension to extract shadow detail while retaining detail in the highlights. Curves, Hue/Sat adjustments were made to perk up the contrast and colors. I use a color range selection to make a mask of the sky area into which I inject a substitute sky image which is then manipulated to look correct in the working image. I end with some noise reduction, spot removal and slight sharpening with USM.

I didn't find it necessary to make a dedicated mask of the girl alone like Littlecoo, as the surrounding tones mapped OK for my purpose -- though doing so would certainly have been useful to make the girl pop a bit more, like Littlecoo demonstrated.

Since your posted original was quite small, these cursory enhancements only took a few minutes.

looks like a strong, young woman. i hope she succeeds at whatever it is she's doing.

craig

Lonk, I'm going to take use your suggestions and see what I can come up with. I'll be playing around with this tonight, and hopefully I'll have something to post here tomorrow.

Again, thanks for yours and everyone else's help. I'm always a little nervous when posting to a new board, but this has a been a great place for feedback.

looks like a strong, young woman. i hope she succeeds at whatever it is she's doing.

craig

HA! That's pretty funny, Craig! I'll have to show that to her - all she needs now is a cape and witty catchphase!

Here's another one I took of her that day from a series of photos that I took. The grass is off in some places, but I'm pretty happy with it otherwise. The original is about 6000 pixels wide, but then it's too big to host....

http://img433.imageshack.us/img433/5014/jenmotionvp0.jpg

wayden, welcome to RP, where the clowns will always byte you :)

craig

Long time, no post! My HD crashed right after I joined here, and some might've thought I just bailed after getting some critiques in this thread. I hate when others do that on other sites, especially new people. And then it probably looks like I did the same here - so I wanted to explain my absence.

Again, thanks for all of the above critiques, and now that I have a new HD, hopefully I'll be able to contribute to other threads as well as post some new stuff of my own...

welcome back :)